RES 2025054 - Laserfiche WebLink

1. Introduction The City of Pleasanton (City), like many other East Bay communities, understands the growing threat of wildfires. With shifting climate patterns, prolonged extreme heat days, droughts, and an expanding wildland-urban interface or WUI (where developed neighborhoods meet naturally vegetated terrain), the risk of devastating fires continues to rise. Proactive wildfire planning is essential to protecting lives, property, trees, and the natural beauty that defines Pleasanton. While Pleasanton consists of a varied mix of urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods, this plan mostly focuses on the low-density suburban areas that exist among the slopes of the Pleasanton Ridge and in the hills along the south side of the City. These residential developments present an elevated risk of being impacted by a destructive wildfire due to the presence of vegetation and terrain nearby. These areas, therefore, require additional planning, resources, and maintenance from the City and residents, which are not as critical in the more built-up areas of the City in order to protect life and property from wildfire. This Wildfire Appendix of the Pleasanton Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP) is intended to: 1) Provide relevant information about the fire environment within and around the City. 2) Provide guidance to both City staff and property owners on how to best manage trees in Pleasanton to minimize their risk of contributing to the spread or intensity of wildfire. The sections within this Appendix provide the following information: ■ Current Wildfire Hazard Conditions: Summary of the current urban forest -related wildfire hazards presented by the combination of terrain, vegetation cover, and land use. ■ Regulations: Detailed descriptions of the relevant state and local regulations that set vegetation management requirements within areas designated as high risk for wildfire. ■ Specific Recommendations for Tree Maintenance Practices: Including tree spacing guidelines, removal, and replacement strategies for fire -prone tree species, and pruning standards for both private and public trees that will reduce risk to the City's urban forest and from contributing to the spread of a wildfire. • Costs, Funding, and Insurance: Economic considerations for implementing the recommended tree maintenance practices, opportunities to fund fire prevention work beyond the existing tree maintenance programs, and property insurance considerations. A Joint Planning Effort The City and the Livermore Pleasanton Fire Department (LPFD) understand the increasing risk of wildfire and helped in the planning and coordination of this wildfire appendix. The LPFD also has an existing defensible space and vegetation management program for the areas of the City at the highest risk for wildfire. Both the City and LPFD recognize that this wildfire appendix in the UFMP can complement their existing wildfire prevention programs by providing recommendations for tree management on both public and private trees that emphasize fire department defensible space recommendations and sound tree care practices. APPENDIX A -WILDFIRE 7 of 219